My coworker came up to me one day and said, “i got you a housewarming gift.” She disappeared and returned with a little brown box. She said, “i know you like to garden and you don’t have a garden yet at the new house because of the deer, but this plant is self-sufficient. You don’t even have to water it. You can have a little greenery without any of the fuss.” I lifted a hanging plant in a tile pot out of the box. It was made of rubber, but so life-like. There were little gravel bits glued into the pot where soil might have been were it real. It looked so realistic. At first i thought to myself, “i’ve never had a mock plant. I’ve only had real. What am i going to do with this?” But as i walked through the tiny house i realized, it did not feel like me. There wasn’t a speck of green. I had gotten rid of all of my flowering and vegetable plants in order to move to the property and i was nowhere near financially stable enough to shell out for a greenhouse or a raised bed garden with a 10 ft deer fence. So i picked a spot in the bathroom and drove a nail into the edge of the medicine cabinet. I hung the little rubber plant. Every time i showered or sat on the loo i saw the little rubber plant. It did not register in my mind that it was fake. The way it hung down was realistic enough that i felt i had a bit of garden in the tiny house with me. It eased the pain of giving up the plants i’d had on my 15 ft apartment patio and it gave me hope that one day i’d get my financial situation together enough to afford a greenhouse and there would be veggies and flowers galore once more!